30 Jul MASSEI: THE FIRST MARRIAGE THERAPIST IN HISTORY THE ONLY YARTZEIT MENTIONED IN THE TORAH IS AARON’S. WHY?

Why Aaron?
The Torah never
mentions the
yartzeit—the day of
the passing—of any
of its protagonists.
We do not know the
day when Adam, Avraham, Yitzchak,
Yaakov, Yosef, Sarah, or Rachel passed
away. Even Moshe’s day of passing is
omitted in the Torah.
There is one single exception: Aaron,
the older brother of Moshe and the Kohen
Gadol. His death is recorded in the
week’s parsha with a date:
Bamidbar 33:38: Aaron the priest
ascended Mount Hor, at the behest of
G-d, and died there, in the fortieth year
after the Israelites had left the land of
Egypt, on the first day of the fifth month.
Why Aaron? Even with his own siblings,
Miriam and Moshe, we don’t see in the
Torah the date of their passing. Why was
his passing day enshrined in the biblical
text?
What is more, the date of his death is not

mentioned in the actual story of his
passing (back in Chukas, Bamidbar ch.
20), where it would seem to belong, but
rather in the parsha of Massei (Bamidbars
ch. 33), while discussing the forty-two
journeys that Bnei Yisrael traveled in the
desert—en route from Mitzrayim to the
Promised Land. It in this context,
apparently not relevant to the discussion,
that the Torah takes a detour: “They
journeyed from Kadesh and camped at
Mount Hor, at the edge of the land of
Edom. Aaron the Kohen Gadol ascended
Mount Hor at G-d’s behest and died
there…”
The Peacemaker
The Lubavitcher Rebbe once offered a
moving insight, demonstrating the eternal
relevance of Torah.
Aaron, we know, was the ultimate peace
lover and peacemaker among the Jewish
people. As Hillel says in Pirkei Avot: “Be
of the disciples of Aaron—a lover of
peace, a pursuer of peace, one who loves
the creatures and draws them close to
Torah.” Aaron dedicated his life to
bringing peace between rivals and

quarreling spouses.
When the Torah
describes his death, it
states: The whole
congregation saw that
Aaron had expired,
and the entire house
of Israel wept for
Aaron for thirty days.
Why the “entire
house of Israel”?
When Moshe passes
away, the Torah states
that the “sons of Israel wept for Moshe”;
but here it was the “entire house.” Why
the distinction? Rashi explains: “Both the
men and the women, for Aaron had
pursued peace; he promoted love between
disputing parties and between husbands
and wives.”
The Talmud relates that 80,000 young
men who were all given the name
“Aaron” came to eulogize Aaron after his
passing. They were the children born
from parents who wanted to get divorced,
and Aaron saved their marriages. They
named their babies Aaron, in tribute to
the person who saved their marriage
and allowed these children to be born.
This means that over forty years in the
wilderness, Aaron restored peace and
trust to 80,000 Jewish couples. He
must have been a busy marriage
therapist!
His efforts were rewarded in kind,
with the appearance of the Ananei
Hakavod that served as a unifying
force, molding the entire Bnei Yisrael
encampment into a cohesive unit.
The Remedy
Now, we can understand, on a
homiletical level, why the yartzeit of
Aaron is specified in the Torah——on
the first day of the fifth month of the
year, which is the Hebrew month of Av.
1500 years after the death of Aaron,
the first of Av would usher in a period
known in Jewish law as the “Nine
Days,” referring to the first nine days
of the Hebrew month of Av, a time
dedicated to mourning the destruction
of the first and second Batei Mikdash
in Yerushalayim, which were both
burned down on the 9th day of AV (the
first by Bavel in 586 BCE, the second
by Rome in 70 CE).
The Talmud states: “The second Beit
Hamikdash, why was it destroyed?

Because the Jews harbored baseless
hatred towards each other.” This was also
true on a political level: The Romans
exploited the in-fighting between the
Jewish people to defeat Judea.
During the first Beit Hamikdash era,
too, it was the ongoing conflicts between
the two kingdoms of Israel that weakened
the nation, and the violence among Jews
which spelled disaster, as the prophets
explicitly warn.
“G-d provides the remedy before the
disease,” says the Talmud. Before any
challenge in life, G-d provides the energy
to deal with it. The yartzeit of a person,
the day when their life-journey is
completed, is a day in which their energy
and light is manifest in a uniquely potent
way in the world. So on the first day of
Av, when we usher in the Nine Days of
grief over our discord and hatred, the
Torah tells us we have the yartzeit of
Aaron the great peacemaker and
unifier—a day in which can connect with
Aaron’s energy and legacy of love and
unity, to repair and heal the rifts and
mistrust that caused our galut, and usher
in a new era of redemptive consciousness.
That is why the Torah places the day of
the yartzeit in parshat Maasei, which
according to Jewish tradition is always
read on or right before the very day of his
yartzeit—the first day (Rosh Chodesh) of
the month Av. It is during this time of the
year that the Torah wants to empower us
with the energy of Aaron to restore
cohesion, trust, and love among our
people.
On every first day of Av, as one can
smell the flames of destruction, Aaron
casts upon us his power of love,
reminding us that we are capable of
transcending our fears and our egos, and
creating a revolution of love among our
eternal but fragmented people. If baseless
hatred was the cause of our destruction,
baseless love will create our redemption.